VectisSaint

Boufal beats players but doesn't create many opportunities for others, basic problem, as before he went on loan, he does not look up and thus cannot regularly pick out a team mate. He is certainly skilful, full of tricks, but then so was the guy from the Brazilian Soccer School or whatever it was called. All the ball skills in the world but not a footballer which is a team sport. Occassionally gets lucky, hence his assists, but it is seldom due to his vision. Very good defensively as well (certainly compared to Redmond or Tadic when all three were here a season or two back). If someone can coach his head down running blind way of playing out of him then we would have a top player on our hands, but so far no one has managed to do it.

Adams out on loan. You cannot be serious.

Not neccessarily. The "measurable" part was only introduced in 1990 when they changed the offside law to be based on the attacking player being level. At the time this was fair enough, before technology was introduced a linesman could make a judgement based on line of sight to determine whether a player was level or not. The issue is that you cannot say accurately that a palyer (i.e. a rather nebulous blob) is "level" or not. A player is not a line so linesmen used to make a judgement based on whether the attacking player was gaining an advantage by being noticeably (to the human eye) in front of the defender. OK, they got it wrong sometimes, but apparently reviews have shown they got it right 95%+ of the time. Remove the "mathematical" definition and then remove the need for VAR to review it. The law should be along the lines of the attacking player is offside if he is clearly gaining an advantage by being ahead of the defensive player (I am not a law maker, but something along those lines). the offisde law was never meant to be about pinpoint accuracy (something which VAR cannot cope with anyway), it was about preventing an attacking player gaining an unfair advantage, effectively stopping the attacker "goal hanging". The IFAB need to go back to first principles and reflect on what the offside law is for, and not try to make the law more precisely worded. We have to get back to ensuring that goals are scored through skilful play, and not being prevented by some ridiculous attempt at millimetre accuracy. The suggestion by Souness on Saturday is another way of doing this, and has some merits, he is about the only pundit so far that has appreciated the problem is not VAR but the current offside law. Only problem for me is that any revised law needs to take into account all levels of the game, whether they have VAR or not, I hate the idea of having different rules for some games and not others.

I would think if we test Gazza a few times we will score at least once.

Don't think you meant pedant but hey ho. Think actually it's very likely that Cedric will go in January, he's going at the end of the season anyway, so from the Club's point of view getting rid in Jan is better business as they might still get a small fee (maybe). He has said himself he is just giving it his all until his contract expires. Think we probably have a replacement lined up, probably the guy from Genk or Gent or whatever (some Belgian team). I like Cedric, some of what is written on here is total nonsense, but think his time with us is nearly up.

The Leeds ayer is hardly going to walk away from them to us at the moment. The last thing we need are inexperienced CBs, we have enough already, seriously doubt we will sign a CB, Stephens and Bednarek are forging a decent partnership and we have Yoshida as backup, even if Vesta goes. The RB we have been linked with before, he wouldn't surprise me, think Cedric may depart in Jan rather than waiting for his contract to expire. The Celtic forward could be interesting, but doubt they will do business when they have a battle on for the SPL, unless it is as a make weight for a permanent deal for Forster.

No it doesn't, it means that an attacking player would be less likely to be penalised for gaining an advantage. At the moment players are penalised for gaining an advantage that does not exist. To make things better they should also scrap the use of VAR for offside and make it up to the linesman like it should be. Offside should not be a scientific decision, because it should be about gaining an unfair advantage. The whole problem here is not VAR, but about the definition of the offside law in the modern game. The law was changed in 1990 and needs to be changed again as a result of other changes. Fully support VAR in other aspects, but the offside part is ruining the spectacle and reducing the number of goals. Time before last they changed the offside law it was because the number of goals being scored had been reduced, the change immediately resulted in a very significant increase in goals scored. Laws can be changed and it is urgent that IFAB change them soon.

But it does because that's what the authorities want. It shouldn't be as complicated because VAR should not be involved in offsides if the offside rule was rewritten to reflect the need for it to address 'the advantage' rather than whether it is 'mathematically' level or not. Sourness today had a sensible solution, that is to change so that the attacking player is onside if any part of his body is in an onside position, makes a lot more sense than the current law.

It's not easy at all. Needs to take into account moment ball is kicked and multiple players, and players are rather nebulously shaped compared to a sphere (ball) or a straight line. Then the nebulous shape only has parts that count (legal goal scoring parts), the pitch is not flat and then the frame length of a TV camera has to be considered. The answer should be to remove the need for VAR for offside by easing the definition of offside to focus more on the 'gaining an unfair advantage' rather than trying to precisely measure something that is imprecise by definition.

Just bear in mind that Adams is 23. How many other strikers are regularly banging in goals in their late teens/very early 20s in the Championship or PL?

But that's the problem, it is not as simple as that. The VAR tools are not completely accurate, and it is impossible to determine exactly when the ball was kicked. The real problem is that VAR is trying to accurately measure something that is immeasurable and should not be measured in the first place. The whole point of the offside rule is to prevent an attacking player gaining an unfair advantage. The law was changed only back in 1990 to bring in the concept of the attacking player being level with the 2nd last defender. It was introduced in the days before the technology, and was a judgement call, it was thought that this was easier to determine and from the point of view of a linesman's eye it was. But "level" was never meant to be a scientific factor. There is no advantage of having the width of your toenail in front of a defender, or your nose or your armpit. The IFA need to change the offside law so that it is based more on "gaining an advantage", and allow the linesmen to do their job and make the judgement call without the use of VAR. No problem with VAR for other parts of the game, but to use it for offside using the current offside rule is stupid. Not even convinced VAR got it right yesterday with the Zaha incident, think we got lucky there. Cannot see what part of Zaha they considered was in front of what part of Stephens, but that's a different argument. As Danny Mills said on MOTD 3 good goals were wiped off yesterday in the PL, we should be encouraging more goals not taking them away, none of the three were scored due to any tangible unfair advantage to the attacking player.

This. The offside rule should be changed such that use of VAR would not be appropriate. "Being level" is not how offside shoulbe judged, its about having an advantage, and an armpit or a toenail is not an advantage.

He was, along with PEH, who was even worse. Diabolical was putting it mildly. Most people here seemed to agree that he was bad.

They are being made to look good because of the poor quality of the opposition. Citeh are very ordinary with their defensive fragility, United, Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal are all very poor at the moment, Leicester still 2nd says it all.

Credit where its due he was very good yesterday. But he was diabolical against Villa and poor against Newcastle. Consistently good he has not been.

Not only that, he was born in Dublin. Unlike most Irish internationals he was actually born in Ireland. Anyway the run was broken by Stephens against Villa, he is Cornish. ?

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Perhaps some credit ought to go to Kitzbichler, or at least to having an assistant again. Ralph lost his way, without an assistant (Rohl) to bounce ideas off, eventually Kitzbichler comes in and after a few weeks things start to turn round. Coincidence?

Prowse was given MOTM. Not saying he necessarily deserved it but think your assessment is a bit wide of the mark.

It doesn't

The response was to the fookwit who said he couldn't pass, even to Jan. We really do have some dimwits on this board.

Daft, perhaps he is not 100%. Fitness is not an issue. He can pick up a serious injury any time. Shouldplay your best team for every game,playing the percentages seldom works in practice :-)

Josh Sims isn't returning from Yeovil (unless its a family visit to his place of birth). He returned from New York a few weeks ago, but no one was ever able to clarify if he was eligible to play before January.

Yes, well below his average of over 70% this season. Over 70% successful passes when averaging over 40 passes per game shows that he is actually quite good at passing, by no means the best, but actually pretty decent. Notice he is in the WhoScored team of the week this week, that's best XI of the top5 European Leagues, based on all stats. Not a great believer in stats but I think they at least refute the nonsense spouted by someone on here that he can't pass.

Chelsea specifically, probably, teams in general absolutely. You know there were times when teams used to be played as double headers, home one weekend, away the next.